The Queen’s Handmaiden
By Tracy L. Higley
This book had a lot of historical
information connecting Cleopatra, King Herod (who was King at the time of
Jesus’ birth) and Octavian. The story is
told from the view of Herod’s wife’s handmaiden. Through her eyes we learn a lot about the
fragile threads of political loyalty and safety even among family members. There is emphasis on Jewish traditions, the
way treasured written history and prophecies were handed down through the
generations or hidden for safety and different ways various factions waited for
the Messiah.
The trouble I had with this book is
there were detailed descriptions of torture, executions and murders. I have read similar accounts in other historical
novels. However, since this is a
Christian historical novel I felt that the mention of these did not have to be
in such vivid, gruesome detail.
Another problem area was that the
transitions between time segments was not smooth or clear. This happened at least 3 times in the book
where suddenly you are thrust years ahead and there wasn’t anything to let you
know that time has passed so the sequence of events was confusing.
I received this book free from the
publishers and was not required to write a positive review.
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